Don't put all serial killers in same box

WASHINGTON - Hollywood's serial-killer stereotype - an antisocial white guy unable to stop murdering - is nothing but a Tinseltown tall tale, the FBI concludes in a new report.

"There's no one-size-fits-all profile," said Mark Hilts, chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. "Don't get caught up looking for Hannibal Lecter."

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After analyzing the views of 135 law enforcement, academic and mental health experts, the FBI's behavioral profilers determined "there is no generic profile of a serial murderer."

The only traits most predators have in common is they tend to be control freaks with a total lack of remorse for taking innocent lives, the 71-page FBI report determined. It also said their motive to kill is usually simply "because they want to."

The bureau zinged the media for its infatuation with such murders, beginning with Jack the Ripper, who taunted London cops in the 1880s.

The study blamed movie-makers for perpetuating the myths - even though the FBI cooperated on some films it now criticizes, including "Silence of the Lambs," which made Hannibal the Cannibal famous.

As a result, FBI agents called in to help solve cases sometimes deal with local cops who assume the carnage is the work of leather-masked fiends with genius IQs, bureau officials said.

Contrary to popular belief, serial murderers often build careers and families even as their body count climbs, such as Green River killer Gary Ridgway, who snuffed out 48 prostitutes.

"He just had a fascination with death," said Bruce Sackman, a retired VA investigator who busted Swango for poisoning three veterans at a hospital in Northport, L.I.

Dennis Rader, a Wichita, Kan., Boy Scout leader, knocked out the myth that serial killers can't stop, the FBI said. He took 10 lives and then didn't murder a soul for the 14 years it took until he was finally arrested.